True exclusivity is a thing of the past. As games get more and more expensive to make, and game hardware more and more standardized and commoditized, getting actual true exclusives, of the kind that really used to set consoles apart back in the day, had become progressively difficult now. First party games are all always exclusive, of course, but they are often not enough- which has led tot he rise of ‘timed exclusives,’ ‘exclusive debuts,’ and ‘console exclusives.’
That last one seems to be getting official status from Sony, with Street Fighter V. The fifth game in Capcom’s storied fighting game franchise is coming to the PS4, but also the PC- meaning that while it’s ammunition for the PS4 in the console war against the Xbox One, it’s still not an actual exclusive.
To ensure that customers know the game’s true status, Sony has introduced new branding for Street Fighter V on its cover- basically, the game is very clearly marked as a ‘Console Exclusive.’
On the one hand, mad respect to Sony for not just calling it an exclusive, and misleading customers. On the other? Man, I really do rue the death of true exclusives as they used to be.
Ah well.